Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Snakes, Deer and Frogs






My husband has met some new people while volunteering in various organizations while up North. One of the couples invited us, and another older couple, to their home for dinner last night. I had heard that this older couple were retired science teachers and very much naturalists as they have camped near the Arctic Circle for nearly two months.

I am very much a city girl having grown up in the Boston area and lived the past 28 years in a suburb of Washington DC. I believe that you go to the grocery store to buy your meat for dinner. This is just what I am familiar with. I learned that we were to eat venison that had just been shot by a neighbor the day before. Nothing against venison but I have never had it and of course, Bambi runs through my mind. All day I am dreading Bambi on my plate for dinner. Can I cut it up into small pieces and hid it under other things; can I even eat it?

We arrive at their house to find that in their living room resides their 20 foot long python snake. You heard me - 20 FEET LONG!!!!!! They bring here out, I had to pet it and then hold it as it is hissing at me. Then it poops on their carpeting and they give us a science lesson on snake poop.

I'm just not a snake girl, sad to say.

We got to their house early so we could watch their favorite movie, one that our son Jeff, who is a middle school science teacher, would love to show his students (or so they told us). I was rather doubtful but went along. The movie was called "Frog" and starred Shelley Duvall and Elliot Gould. It was okay but so dated as it was filmed in the mid 1980's and the girls had the big hair, station wagons for the family car (no mini-vans at that time), big aviator glasses (think Peter Marshall on the old Hollywood Squares).

Dinner followed with canned corn from last summer (very good), soggy Brussels Sprouts, couscous with Swiss Chard and .......BAMBI. I tried it and ate it. Not as bad as I thought it would be and my husband said that the host cooked it perfectly. I just needed to get over that I was eating a deer.

Conversation after dinner which was fine. We spoke about favorite movies and the hosts thought that the best movies were the East German movies (last time I remember East Germany was 1990) and those form China. I mentioned that I loved Sand Lot and Goonies, neither of which he had heard. Strange. Almost un-American. Unfortunately, I think we later bored the husband. He fell asleep at the dinner table. His wife said and did nothing and I can't believe that I am sitting there with a snake in the room, husband asleep, the bathroom in their bedroom is frigid because they don't heat the bedroom (the other guest guessed that it was 40 degrees). We were home by 9:00 PM.




Sunday, January 17, 2010

Ribbon Blankets


I love to feel creative and that is a little difficult when I don't draw, sing or act. Instead I sew and cook. I love the feel of fabric and all the thoughts that enter my mind when I see and feel fine fabric. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by all my ideas and don't get anything done. While I am up here in Michigan, my goal to to work on some of the projects that I have the supplies for.

I decided to make ribbon blankets for babies. I brought up north with me some incredibly soft and cuddly minkee fabric as well as some washed and oh so soft flannel to coordinate with it. I thought I had all my ribbons up here but instead only had a few. Off to WalMart I went to see what they. With my purchases in hand, it was time to cut out the fabrics, pin on the ribbons and see what I could come up with. Here is the end result. I hope to have many made for the summer craft shows up here. Let me know if you like them.

Friday, January 15, 2010

New Year's Resolution - a little late



What's the rush? Can't New Year's resolutions be made anytime in the first month of the New Year? Mine, and I am hanging my head down low, is to write more frequently on this blog. So many things have happened that I haven't written about or documented and they would have made such great blogs. I am going to mix it up a little - some from earlier this past year and some current.

Current - Our son Chris is finishing up his three weeks in Europe. He left Dec. 26th to join a study abroad program. He is working toward his MBA (graduation is May from George Washington University in Washington DC) and these three weeks are credits for him. He arrived in Barcelona and then traveled to Paris, Interlaken, Zurich, Venice and Milan. To read some of his adventures here is his blog: http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Catalonia/Barcelona/blog-465171.html The photos are all his. Once you have read this one, please click on next entry to read about his free weekend in Brugge, Belgium. Feel free to wander around his blog for all of his adventures around the world. The photo above is his taken on New Year's Eve in Paris.